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Black to move. Which moves saves the draw?

Karsten Müller in ChessBase Magazine

Do you like these lessons? There are plenty more by internationally renowned endgame expert Dr Karsten Müller in ChessBase Magazine, where you will also find openings articles and surveys, tactics, and of course annotations by the world's top grandmasters.

The editor’s top ten

1. From world champion to chess player: Magnus Carlsen annotates his win against Michael Adams.
2. Sicilian pearl from Wijk: Fabiano Caruana demonstrates how he outplayed van Wely.
3. Simple but effective: Sergei Tiviakov introduces 2.d3 as a weapon against the Caro-Kann (video).
4. Tactics are not just about attacking – in Oliver Reeh’s video the focus is on a Saving Defensive Idea.
5. Active against 1.d4: Valeri Bronznik reveals to you the subtleties of the Chigorin Defence (1.d4 d5 2.c4 Nc6).
6. In Rubinstein’s footsteps: Robert Ris presents a surprise weapon against the Blumenfeld Gambit.
7. The best of Gibraltar: checkmate Short – with the moves of Indian woman player Harika! (interactive video - Move by Move)
8. Promoted in Wijk thanks to a smashing move: Adhiban shows his spectacular victory over Abasov.
9. Getting to know Wei Yi: piece sacrifice, attack, mate. Daniel King demonstrates the attack on the king by the Chinese super-talent against David Navara.
10. Knight or bishop – which is the better blockader? Mihail Marin widens your knowledge about the subject of the "Blockade".

Introductory video by Karsten Müller

In the closing third part of his series on White’s double fianchetto Mihail Marin examines positions in which Black has played ...d5 so as to exchange on c4 immediately. As in Parts 1 and 2 White does not always get an advantage, but he usually does get the more pleasant game.

Schipkov: English A251.c4 e5 2.g3 Nc6 3.Bg2 g6 4.Nc3 Bg7 5.Rb1 Nf6

With 5.Rb1 White has in mind above all the advance b2-b4, but he is also delaying the development of his Ng1. Boris Schipkov recommends 5...Nf6. After that Black can set about matters on the kingside (...Nh5, ...f5) or possibly get his d-pawn to d5 in a single move.

From White’s point of view, this setup constitutes a universal weapon against the Grünfeld Defence and above all the King’s Indian – very popular amongst those not keen on learning a lot of theory. Our author Krisztian Szabo considers the subject above all from Black’s point of view.

Moskalenko: Dutch A801.d4 f5 2.Nc3 d5 3.Bf4 a6

With his suggestion for Black (2...d5) Viktor Moskalenko is proposing a setup based above all on the fact that the Nc3 then occupies an unfavourable position. In Part 1 (3.Bf4) 3...a6 prepares a rapid ...c5.

In his closing part Daniel Gormally examines the remaining plans on Black’s 7th move, above all 7...g6 and 7...f6. White must be prepared to sacrifice a pawn quickly. Things usually become very sharp, however positional struggles are in no way excluded.

In the 11.Qf2 Qe7 variation a lot has been happening in recent years and Hannes Langrock can see good reasons for re-examining it after his article in CBM 136. The German author considers the variation to be very playable and considers it “on an upward path as far as popularity is concerned”.

The game Svidler-Vallejo Pons, Reykjavik 2015, came as a great surprise for Igor Stohl, because it involved the employment of the Exchange Variation of the Grünfeld Defence by White. But the Spanish player demonstrated that White cannot generate an advantage from his extra tempo.

Bronznik: Chigorin Defence D071.d4 d5 2.c4 Nc6 3.Nf3 Bg4 4.Nc3 e6

With his book “Chigorin Defence” (Schachverlag Kania 2001, 2nd edition 2005) Valeri Bronznik wrote the standard work on this opening. In the first part of his article for ChessBase Magazine he deals with lines in which the bishop is developed to f4.

White’s move order (3.Nc3 Nf6 4.e3) is actually based on the fact that 4...Bf5 is not so good on account of the attack on d5 und b7. But Alexey Kuzmin shows in his article that the pawn sacrifice is “absolutely correct”.

The move order after 8.Rb1 and especially 12...Bg4 is seen as a safe equalising continuation for Black. Many lines have even been almost completely analysed to a finish and have a high drawing ratio. In his article Michal Krasenkow offers a repertoire for Black.

Conquering the centre with 5...d5 has of course a certain appeal. But although Black can equalise in the position in the diagram (only with 9...Be7), Evgeny Postny sees some practical difficulties for the second player.

Ris: Blumenfeld Gambit E101.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 c5 4.d5 b5 5.e4

Until now the question was whether accepting the pawn sacrifice with 5.dxe6 fxe6 6.cxb5 or with 5.Bg5 offers White the better chances of an advantage. For those players who do not have a ready answer, Robert Ris suggests the move 5.e4. White now himself plays a gambit – with good chances of an advantage!

Karsten MüllerKarsten Müller, born 1970, has a world-wide reputation as one of the greatest endgame experts. He has, together with Frank Lamprecht, written a book on the subject: “Fundamental Chess Endgames” in addition to other contributions such as his column on the website ChessCafe as well as in ChessBase Magazine. Müller's ChessBase-DVDs about endgames in Fritztrainer-Format are bestsellers. The PhD in mathematics lives in Hamburg, where he has also been hunting down points for the HSK in the Bundesliga for many years.

See also

9/5/2017 – Endgames with opposite coloured bishops are tricky. Sometimes they are a draw although one side is two or even three pawns up. Sometimes the bishop sacrifices itself to let his pawns queen and sometimes these endgames are a simple win. But you always have to be careful.

See also

8/29/2017 – If queen and king fight against king and pawn in the endgame the side with the pawn has only a chance to survive if the pawn happens to be a rook- or a bishop's pawn and is only one square away from queening. But even then things can be tricky.

Video

Former World Champion Mikhail Botvinnik liked to play the French and once described it as a 'difficult and dangerous opening'. But in this 60 minutes video IM Andrew Martin suggests an aggressive and little-used idea of the renowned attacking player GM Viktor Kupreichik to counter the French: 1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.e5 c5 4.c3 Nc6 5.Be3!?. Andrew Martin uses the games of Kupreichik to show why this line could catch many French aficionados unprepared and is very dangerous for Black. Attacking players will love this line and the unusual complications that it promotes.